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 from
Gretchen
December 7, 2007 |
Math Workshop
On Monday we made our December calendars. Phineas led our
temperature and calendar routines, and we added a wind chill chart.
We have continued on subtraction strategies, with counting back and
one less. The students sound great as they practice “Don't Forget
Zero.”
Book Clubs
This is what our groups worked on this week:
Stars: Peg the Hen, Jet Bed; short e
Stripes: Little Bear's Friend; long o/long u
Washingtons: Seven Continents; long o/long u
Lincolns: Henry and Mudge; short e/long e
Eagles: Monster Blood III; long e/short e
Science/Theme
With Gretchen, we did movement activities to learn the location of
the Rockies and for Mountain Dance (volcanic, fault block and dome
mountains, the forces of ice, wind, and water erosion). Both classes
did a superb job! With Autumn, the students looked at the life forms
at different levels of altitude in the Rockies. On Wednesday, the
students created an Andes mountain mural and a travel brochure for
the Rockies.
Stories
We continued to enjoy The Secret of the Andes. The students
also enjoyed several poems about wintry scenes including 'Stopping
By the Woods On a Snowy Evening,” “Wintertime,” “Winter Picture
Books,” “In the Ending of This Evening Snow,”and “This House is the
Center.”
Special and Noteworthy
Snow gave us the opportunity to start some observations for winter
poems. The fall poems are on display in our front window. We invite
you to come by to read them.
On Thursday, serendipity brought us some holiday joy. I hit the
wrong button on my CD/tape player/radio, and we ended up listening
to The Nutcracker on WVTF. We dropped some of our reading
activities, listened to the story and music, and did a bit of
dancing. Alexandra displayed beautiful line of limbs, Allie her
fluid joints, Drew his sense of rhythm, and Moss, Phineas, Sophie,
Caroline, Michael, and Tory joined them.
Looking ahead, our usual classroom plans will stop to accommodate
Las Posadas on Monday morning. On the 17th, our class will host a
game from Austria as part of our International Festival. Alexandra's
mother, Martina, will help us with this. Our class will visit other
classes that week to join their activities, and do a variety of
holiday crafts and stories.
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